This video, “Sesame Street: Meet the Friends in Your Neighborhood with Ji-Young, Elmo, and Alan,” published in 2021, introduces Sesame Street’s first Asian American muppet character, Ji-Young. Ji-Young is a young Korean-American  girl who appeared in the “See Us Coming Together: A Sesame Street Special” and officially joined Sesame Street’s lineup in Season 53. In this video, Elmo, Alan (a Japanese-American man who lives on Sesame Street), and Ji-Young talk about the other Asian people that live in their neighborhood. Furthermore, we see short stories of five Asian Americans in Elmo’s neighborhood (Anton, Ji-Young, Luana, Alan, and the Menins) sharing information on their jobs, interests, history, and cultural heritage. Overall, this video highlights how many Asian-American members have different meaningful roles in Elmo’s (and the viewer’s) neighborhood community.

discussion

What are the ways we see Asian identity among the members of Elmo’s neighborhood? (ex. food, activities, clothes) What roles do they play as members of the community?

How would you describe Ji-Young’s character? Does her character reflect racial and gender-based stereotypes or challenge them?

How are the Menin family embracing not only their Indian traditions but also their experiences in their neighborhood in the United States? What does this have to do with their identity of being “Asian-American”? How do we see this similar embracing of two cultures among the other neighbors?

Compared to other Asian characters in mainstream media that you’ve seen, how are the Asian characters in this video depicted differently? How many types of Asian-Americans do we see? Why is it important to see and hear stories about multiple groups of Asian-Americans?